Cash

[bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204]

> Assuming this is true, it would seem that even good, old fashioned,
> paper currency doesn't provide the level of anonymity that one
> would think.  Scary...

Hasn't really provided it for quite a while, as long as there's an 
infrastructure to track serial numbers (you've presumably noticed that 
each bill a unique serial number, except for counterfeits and maybe
printing glitches.)  It's quite possible to record the serial numbers of
bills before distributing them in applications such as ransom payments
or drug-buying stings, and wouldn't be too hard, with current scanning
technology, to track them at banks, tax offices, etc.

(Of course, neither AT&T GIS (aka NCR) nor Diebold currently makes
ATMs with serial-number scanners in them, but it wouldn't be hard
to require banks to scan the bills before filling the cash machines.)

During one of the "Government's going to replace our Real American
Greenbacks with Pink(o) Money" scares before the plastic-strip money
arrived, USA Today had an article in their money section showing
dollar bills with bar-codes instead of the Arabic-numeral serial number.

		Bill